


she'll teach you things you never dreamed of

by sevenall



Series: Mercy Street [3]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Mercy Street AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 19:00:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6622495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenall/pseuds/sevenall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's no deep water today, but that doesn't mean the danger is less.</p>
            </blockquote>





	she'll teach you things you never dreamed of

"Please trust me, Ikkaku-san."

It sounds like a casual request, pass the salt, hand me another towel, put your life in my hands, but there's no room for balking. She's merely giving him the courtesy of a warning. The last time, she tore his regulator off at a depth of forty feet. He would have panicked if she hadn't held him close and let him feel the lack of aggression or malice in her body. Only seconds before he relaxed. She held her own regulator ready. As soon as she was sure he wouldn't strike out blindly, she fitted it over his face. They shared air for another ten minutes, the way she had taught him in the pool weeks earlier. There's no deep water today, but that doesn't mean the danger is less. Ikkaku nods.

"Very well."

She holds up a blindfold. They both use them for practice, patterns and fight, but this is something different. After swallowing, Ikkaku stands still and lets her tie it. It's neither loose or tight. She takes his hands and guides him forward, through one doorway, then another. The air smells faintly of wood smoke and flowers. They must be in one of the tearooms.

"Nanao-san..."

Her finger touches his lips, signing him to silence. He stops. Retsu-nee told him: 'Go to the Hanaya, go to Nanao. Do what she says.' and he does. He runs with Nanao, miles upon miles to take the edge off his temper. He sits with her and breathes with her and when she throws him a knife, telling him to defend himself, he picks it up. Sometimes he hates for for the cool measurement in her eyes, as she tells him he is doing very well, for the way she controls her body and its impulses instead of the other way around. But even when he hates her, he does what she says.

"Step up here."

Once again she guides him, hand and foot, as he climbs the step-ladder. His skin is prickling now. She'd better not ask him to jump off. And yet they can't be more than three feet up, maybe four. 'She'll teach you things you never dreamed of,' Retsu said.

"Hold out your hands."

He's so used to obeying that he does it before he recognises the clink of metal, chain links, ohfuckohfuckohfuck, what has she done to him?! The cuffs snap shut around his wrists. He kicks out wildly, but she's no longer behind her and all that happens is that he launches himself off the step-ladder. The cuffs and chains take his weight, nearly ripping his arms out of their sockets, his feet can find no purchase and he's screaming, screaming, but she's gone and he's utterly helpless.

Some minutes, hours or years later, his throat is sore from screaming. His shoulders are on fire, with each kick that twist the chains, and he thinks he'll die here. If he does, Zaraki will raze the Hanaya lke a ferret in a hen-house and Retsu-nee will cry. That can't happen. She'll blame herself. She'll say I told him to do what she said and now he's hanging on a hook like butchered meat.

But, and here's where Ikkaku's mind goes a place it doesn't usually; a cold, detached kind of place, what did Nanao say? Before she tore the mask off, cut the safety line, before she took him into this place? She said: 'Trust me.' The sum of their acquaintancy says that what she means is she got him into this. she'll get him out. He stops kicking. He just stops. He closes his eyes and says in a scratchy voice:

"Nanao-san? I'm about to piss myself here, okay?"

THE END


End file.
